Volume 12, Number 1 (Spring 2009)

The Howellsian Howells Essay Prize— Call for Submissions Inside this issue: The Howells Essay Prize is awarded annually by the Howells Society for the best paper on Howells pre- sented at the annual ALA conference. The winning pa- 2009 Howells Essay Prize— 1 per may have been presented in any session on the Call for Submissions program of the conference, including but not limited to Join the Howells Listserv 1 panels sponsored by the Howells Society. Howells Society Prize Essay: 2 Consumption & Cannibalism in the Presenters of Howells papers at this year‘s ALA Altrurian Romances of William Dean conference in Boston are strongly encouraged to sub- Howells, by Lance Rubin mit their essays by September 1, 2009 to the Society‘s Vice President and Program Chair, Dr. Lance Rubin, Howells Society Business Meeting 8 who will coordinate the judging. Dr. Rubin‘s email ad- Minutes—ALA Boston, 21 May 2009 dress is lance.rubin@ arapahoe.edu. Please send W.D. Howells Slept Here— 9 your document as an MS Word attachment or PDF file The Golden Lamb Inn, Lebanon, OH only. Essays may be revised prior to submission but should not exceed ―conference length,‖ or roughly 7- Howells Society Executive Board 10 Members, 2009-2011 10 pages, double-spaced. From the Editor 10 Papers will be judged by members of the Executive Committee of the Society, who have the option of ap- In the Next Issue . . . 11 pointing additional readers as necessary. The prize Howells Society Membership / Re- 11 will include a cash award of $100 and an accompany- newal Form ing certificate. The winner will be announced in the Fall issue of The Howellsian, and the prize awarded at next year‘s ALA conference. The winning essay will be published in The Howellsian, a peer-edited newsletter indexed by the MLA International Bibliography. (The winning essay in last year‘s Howells Essay Prize con- test appears later in this issue of The Howellsian.)

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Volume 12, Number 1 (Spring 2009) The Howellsian

The William Dean Howells Society Prize Essay

The William Dean Howells Society Essay Prize was awarded at the 2009 ALA conference to Dr. Lance Rubin for his paper, ―Consumption and Cannibalism in the Altrurian Romances of Wil-

liam Dean Howells,‖ which he presented at the 2008 ALA conference in San Francisco. The Soci- ety thanks Dr. Rubin for his permission to reprint the following version of the prize-winning essay.

The Howells Essay Prize is awarded annually for the best paper on Howells presented at the annual ALA conference. The winning paper may have been presented in any session on the pro- gram of the conference, including but not limited to panels sponsored by the Howells Society.

Consumption and Cannibalism in the Altrurian Romances of William Dean Howells

Lance Rubin Arapahoe Community College

Throughout William Dean Howells‘s Altrurian Ro- tion for the inequities of the Gilded Age.1 What has been mances – the novels A Traveler From Altruria (1893) and neglected in the critical discussions of the Altrurian texts, Through the Eye of the Needle (1907), as well as a series however, is how he positions the role of food and eating of Letters of an Altrurian Traveler that appeared in Cosmo- practices as sites of political, economic and class struggle.2 politan between 1893-94 – Aristedes Homos, the traveler As Homos tells his Altrurian correspondent Cyril in the from the mythical Altruria, expresses shock and sadness at opening of Through the Eye of the Needle, he is stunned what he sees as the barbaric state of American culture at not only ―how the Americans live in the spirit, illogically, the turn of the 20th century. Noting consistently the incon- blindly, and blunderingly, but how they live in the gruity of its ―devotion to the spirit of Christianity amid the body‖ (277). Indeed, eating customs serve as a starting practices which seem to deny it,‖ Homos‘ Altruria has, as point for Homos‘ questions about the voraciousness of un- he explains to the Americans who are hosting his research checked capitalism in which the poor are, in a sense, de- visit to the United States, evolved beyond competitive capi- voured by the rich. talism to a perfectly functioning, Biblically-inspired socialist Astonished by the gluttony and waste associated utopia where poverty, crime and want have become cultural with the spectacle of the dinner tables and restaurants – memories (Through 268). Coming from a land that models coupled with a dismissive ignorance of how food gets to the itself as ―a country where people love one another as the tables – Homos registers the callousness with which the first Christians did‖ (Through 348) – one marked by com- upper class rationalizes a dog-eat-dog ethos that forces plete equality and a shared sense of duty to all – Homos is people to prey upon each other to survive. Rather than dismayed at the predatory ethos that dominates American imagining themselves as part of a collective body through life. Seeing the indentured status of farmers, the rapacity which food and goods circulate to the benefit of all its mem- of the banks and financial machinations, the fanatical ad- bers, as in Altruria, American capitalists support a model herence to principles of individuality, the self-serving no- that sets the various parts of that body politic against one tions of patriotism, the attitude with which physical labor is another, undercutting the nation‘s ideals, identity and prom- frowned upon, the education of women, and the caste-like ises. Noting consistently the striking difference between approach to class distinctions, Homos attempts to make countries ―where people live upon each other as the Ameri- Americans recognize the grotesque gap between their de- cans do, instead of for each other as the Altrurians mocratic and religious ideals and the manner in which both do‖ (267, Howells‘s italics), Homos identifies the conspicu- are manipulated for the enrichment of an exclusive cultural ous consumption of the upper classes as inseparable from elite. their cannibalistic social, cultural and political policies. To be sure, I am not breaking new ground in re- In suggesting that Homos sees American econom- hearsing the politics of Altruria as Howells‘s imagined solu- ics a modern form of cannibalism I am working from

Page 2 Volume 12, Number 1 (Spring 2009) The Howellsian Priscilla Walton‘s insightful claim that ―the cannibal, as the exposes the plutocratic idea that competition and division devourer of human beings‖ is often ―projected onto other are essential biological or psychological characteristics, not discourses, be it a discourse of disease, eating habits, con- ideological constructions of those accustomed to see ag- sumer practices, or everyday activities (such as shop- gressive consumption as the proper functioning of the body ping)‖ (4). Howells implies that the upper classes practice politic. As Homos quickly learns, the American acceptance a metaphorical system of inequitable cultural appropriation of competition in which some will not be served applies not and consumption, but the fact that we are only talking about only to the biological body, but the social body. ―metaphoric cannibalism should not be greeted as a posi- Arriving at the resort‘s dining room, Homos repeats tive development [because] it is precisely its metaphoric his actions at the train station by helping a waitress strug- character that protects it from having to admit its gruesome gling with an overloaded tray of food meant for him and excesses, empowering it in ways that the original form of Twelvemough, much to his host‘s horror: ―To my dismay I cannibalism could not imagine‖ (20). The suggestion that saw… the Altrurian enter into polite controversy with her‖ modern practices of consumption detach cannibalism from before carrying the tray to his own table, while the other the body while retaining the craving for absolute power and diners ―were simply aghast at the scandal‖ (35). Confused hegemony by devouring Otherness is helpful for under- as to why these events are considered unacceptable, he is standing Homos‘ belief that the ―monstrous conditions‖ of told that, despite the American belief in the honor of work, America legitimate in its citizens barbaric ―inducements to ―a certain social slight does attach to [domestic] service… rapacity‖ (Letters 194, 186). The mode of consumption and [S]ome occupations are more degrading than others‖ (38). desire to dominate and incorporate others, while allegorical, Asked why any would choose to be waiters or servants, is still savage and, even worse, encouraged as the national Twelvemough admits, ―It is a question of bread and but- ideal. ter‖ (38). Indeed, it is the fundamental need to eat that dic- Howells establishes the connection between eating tates most of the political and economic subsumation of the practices and Gilded Age capitalism in the first paragraphs poor by the rich. As the plutocrats admit, the basic need to of A Traveler From Altruria as Homos‘ host, the romantic keep oneself and one‘s family fed is the foundation upon novelist Mr. Twelvemough, attempts to hurry the two from which those at the bottom of the food chain sustain the con- the train station to their New England resort because ―we sumption of those on top. shall not stand so good a chance for supper if we are not The Doctor3, for example, notes the way the term there pretty prompt‖ (9). Confused at this idea of not being ―laid off‖ reifies the reality of workers and their families not fed because the train was late (and because Homos, in a knowing how to procure their next meal; the euphemism is move that bewilders his host, helps the porter load all of the ―so different from…having to face beggary or starva- suitcases), Twelvemough explains to him, ―first come, first tion‖ (53). The Banker, trying to explain the social gulf be- served, you know. That‘s human nature.‖ This is only the tween the rich and the poor tells Homos, ―A man does not first of several times that the competitive logic of ―first care much to get into society until he has something to eat, come, first served‖ is positioned as human nature in answer and how to get that is always the first question with the to Homos‘s questions about American customs, so contra- workingman‖ (56). Horrified at the idea that the Manufac- dictory to the traveler‘s ideas about democracy. turer has the ability to arbitrarily take away a man‘s living, Later in the novel, for instance, asking about the Homos tries to comprehend the idea of willingly (almost high interest rates that keep farmers enslaved to the banks happily, if they were unionizing) causing a worker and his who own their land, Twelvemough casually tells Homos, ―I family to go hungry: suppose that man likes to squeeze his brother man when ―If you shot your fellow man, as you say, he gets him in his grip. That‘s human nature, you the law would punish you; but, if for some reason know‖ (83). Likewise, Mrs. Dorothea Makely tells Homos that you decided to be good, you took away his that his account of a cooperative, socialist Altrurian society means of living, and he actually starved to death—― ―is opposed to human nature‖ because it abolishes ―Then the law would have nothing to do ―incentive, and all the motive for…advancement and enter- with it,‖ the professor replied for the manufacturer, prise‖ (92). When he tells her of the familial relationship who did not seem ready to answer. (68) among all citizens of Altruria, she refuses to believe him, That the first chapter makes the consumption, serving and insisting on its ―nonsense‖ by proclaiming, ―I know human necessity of food the focus of the novel‘s initial discussions nature!‖ (70, Howells‘s italics). This repeated explanation of class, politics, and economics reinforces the first-come- Page 3 Volume 12, Number 1 (Spring 2009) The Howellsian first served mentality that Americans have taken as als: ―they have no such thing as individuality here, and that ―indestructibly based in human nature itself‖ (38). The idea in conditions where one man depends upon another man of consuming food, that is, is registered as metonymous for the chance of earning his bread, there can be no more with the underlying assumption of American life as a whole. liberty than there is equality―(―Letter 1‖ 195). The eat-or-be-eaten ethos of citizens preying upon one Needle centers on Homos‘ re-entry into the social another in a system that turns people (waiters, servant, circle of Mrs. Makely. In the first half of the novel, Howells cooks, and farmers) into objects that help to nourish the goes into great detail about the lavish tables and gluttonous well-fed bodies of the upper class can be seen as a mod- behavior of the upper class who feed to excess while ern but no less dehumanizing form of cannibalism. ―within five minutes‘ walk of their warmth and surfeit‖ is ―the Space prevents me from fully developing the more actual presence of hunger and cold‖ and suggestive and metaphorical cannibalism that character- ―houselessness‖ (332). Seeing ―how hardened people be- izes the first novel, but in the sequels Howells makes a came to such things,‖ Homos likens the average American more direct connection between predatory socio-economic to ―a savage who has killed a deer and shares it with his practices and eating. The ―Letter,‖ entitled ―The Selling and starving tribesman, forgetful of the hungering little ones Giving of Dinners‖ (July 1894), provides a clear example of who wait his return‖ (332, 276). However, while walking this. Homos writes, ―Nothing seems so characteristic of the city and watching New Yorkers shop, Homos gets a [New York]…as the eating and drinking constantly going on glimpse of how easily one can become forgetful of the in it‖ (447). He focuses on this ―both for the sake of the pressing social inconsistencies that mark everyday life as curious spectacle it affords, and for the philosophy it in- he is nearly hypnotized by the spectacular displays of food volves‖ (448). He sees the logic of capitalism in the con- at the markets. Anticipating Guy Debord‘s analysis of the stant performances of disparity between the rich and poor, spectacle, Howells reveals an understanding of how the the fed and the hungry; so much so that Homos sees how omnipresence of commodities distracts and depoliticizes by ―a famishing man must suffer peculiarly here from the spec- turning individuals into passive consumers. Homos, so tacle of people everywhere visible at sumptuous ta- very critical of the monstrous gap between ideals and real- bles‖ (447). Aside from the sight of overeating and over- ity in American life, becomes a momentary casualty in what drinking, what shocks him is the way all classes accept the Debord calls ―a permanent opium war‖ (130) as he finds it division of wealth and nourishment as natural. Rather than hard to resist surrendering to the aesthetic display of the being troubled or made guilty by the sight of the hungry very food that is out of reach for so many walking the gazing into the windows of restaurants, ―the Americans are streets: so used to their perpetual encounter of famine and of sur- The display was on either side of the provisioner‘s feit in their civilization, that they do not seem to mind door and began on one hand with a line of pump- it‖ (447). Even those who can afford to eat do not do so kins well out on the sidewalk. Then it was built up with healthy foods. The butchers and grocers in the immi- with the soft white and cool green of cauliflowers, grant neighborhoods are stocked with ―revolting and un- and open boxes of red and white grapes, to the wholeshome‖ goods, ―pieces of loathsome carnage, and window that flourished in the banks of celery and bits of decaying vegetation‖ (450). More confounding to rosy apples. On the other side, gray-green Homos is the staggering waste of food as he sees hotels squashes formed the foundation, and the wall and restaurants dump their unused and half-eaten food into sloped upward with the delicious salads you can boats ―so that even the swine may not eat of it, much less find here, the dark red of beets, the yellow of car- the thousands of hungering men and women and children, rots, and the blue of cabbages. The association of who never know what it is to have quite enough… Every colors was very artistic and even the line of mutton comfortable family in this city throws away at every meal carcases [sic] overhead, with each a brace or the sustenance of some other family‖ (450). Homos sees grouse, or a half dozen quail in its embrace, and this display of waste and want as proof that the ―predatory flanked with long sides of beef at the four ends of instinct is very subtle‖ among ―people who live upon each the line, was picturesque… (309) other, instead of for each other‖ (450). The ―spectacle of Aesthetically removed from its growth and production by their contradictions‖ undermines America‘s self-conception, the hands of laboring farmers through layers of colors and for Homos realizes that the visible show of surfeit and star- texture, the display of foodstuffs as commodities temporar- vation reveals the hollowness of the nation‘s cherished ide- ily hypnotizes Homos, who awakens from the spectacular Page 4 Volume 12, Number 1 (Spring 2009) The Howellsian display with an effort, admitting ―there are so many things in ous week. The meal – ―blue-point oysters, consommé, this great, weary, heedless city to make one forget‖ (309). stewed terrapin…lamb chops with peas, redhead duck with The display momentarily lulls Homos, the most adamantly celery mayonnaise, Nesselrode pudding, fruit, cheese, and attuned to social inequalities. The commodification of cul- coffee, with sausages caviare, radishes, celery, and olives ture transforms a basic need for survival like food into an interspersed wildly, and drinkables and smokables‖ – aesthetic, pleasurable presentation to render consumers causes him, tellingly, to miss church (324). passive to commercial manipulation and to obfuscate the Homos, however, is not alone in his disgust with nature and effects of capitalism's power and deprivations. the spectacle, as well as his own participation in it. At this Indeed, it is the system, more so than individuals dinner he becomes further acquainted with Eveleth who come under Howells‘s scrutiny; the elite are victims, in Strange, a widow whose husband left her a fortune, but their own way, of a system that makes barbarism attractive who seems as uncomfortable as Homos at the excess and and predatory ideology seem natural. The spectacle of the gluttony of the plutocracy. She asks the crowd ―how many meals Homos describes to Cyril reinforces the barbarism. people we supposed there were in this city, within five min- Particularly suggestive is the Thanksgiving dinner. Homos utes‘ walk of us, who had no dinner to-day‖ (325). Homos relates how the holiday was established to express thanks recognizes her anguish over the contradictory system in for America‘s continued prosperity,‖ but which seems in- which she exists, and indeed, she later confesses to him of congruous with the sight of ―hordes of men and women of a deep dissatisfaction. While not suffering ―a hunger of every occupation [who] are feeling the pinch of pov- body,‖ she reveals a ―hunger of soul. If you escape one, erty‖ (307). Homos also notes how Thanksgiving is you suffer the other, because if you have a soul, you must ―devoted to witnessing a game of football between the long to help, not for a time, but for all time‖ (335). Through Elevens of two great universities,‖ after which ―there is al- several discussions about the incongruity and absurd gulf ways a heavy dinner at home‖ (308). between America‘s nationalistic and religious ideals and Mrs. Makely‘s Thanksgiving meal is ―abominable their actual practices, Mrs. Strange agrees to marry Homos for its extravagance, and revolting in its appeals to appetite‖ and return with him to Altruria. to Homos (315). The ―simple‖ meal includes oysters The second half of the novel is also written in epis- served with ―French wine,‖ followed by soup, fish, with tolary form, letters from Eveleth to Dorothea Makely as she sliced cucumbers dressed with oil and vinegar,‖ a course of describes Altrurian life. Gradually, she allows herself to sweetbreads with green peas‖ accompanied by cham- abandon her old habits and ideologies but it is around food pagne, immediately followed with ―a remove, a tenderloin of where she has the most difficulty letting go of her old ide- beef, with mushrooms…stewed terrapin…stuffed peppers‖ als. While respecting the openness with which all citizens accompanied by ―one or two side-dishes‖ (315). Time be- treat each other, Eveleth cannot initially bring herself to eat tween all this and the main course is spent drinking several at the same table with those who cook and serve her food. glasses of wine and passing ―plates of radishes, olives, ―I instinctively drew the line at cooks and waitresses,‖ she celery, and roasted almonds.‖ After a palate-cleansing writes: ―In New York, you know I always tried to be kind to ―water-ice flavored with rum,‖ the servants bring in ―a roast my servants, but as for letting one of them sit down in my turkey the size of an ostrich‖ and a platter of ―Canvasback presence, much less sit down at table with me, I never duck,‖ accompanied by cranberry sauce and ―currant jelly.‖ dreamed of such a thing in my most democratic mo- Knowing how this display of gorging must appear to his ments‖ (382). Upon learning that the girls who served their correspondent, Homos nonetheless adds, ―there was a first meal upon arriving at Altruria ―had drawn lots‖ to do so salad with the duck, and after that there was an ice-cream, and ―were proud of having the honor of waiting on us,‖ she with fruits and all manner of candied fruits, and candies, realized the preposterousness of adhering to predatory hi- different kinds of cheese, coffee, and liqueurs to drink after erarchies (382). the coffee‖ (316). Noting that Homos drinks almost no wine, But the more daunting obstacle for Eveleth is the one of the guests tells him ―that he did not think I could fact that Altrurians are vegetarians. And though she is sur- make that go in America, if I meant to dine much. ‗Dining, prised at the satisfaction of the ―different kinds of mush- you know, means overeating,‖ he explained, ‗and if you rooms which took the place of meat‖ in the Altrurain diet, wish to overeat, you must overdrink‘‖ (324). The gentleman her craving for meat remains (382). She confesses, ―I was also confesses to love dinner at the Makely‘s, though he hungry for meat – for roast, for broiled, for fried, for complains of the late hour he was forced to eat the previ- hashed‖ (383). Homos blames himself for not considering Page 5 Volume 12, Number 1 (Spring 2009) The Howellsian how her old tastes would linger, but feels hopeless since race‖ (408). The castaways turn out to be two plutocratic ―nobody since the old capitalist times [in Altruria] has families Eveleth knows from New York, the Thralls and the thought of killing a sheep or cattle for food‖ (383). That the Moors, and she shamefully recognizes the absurdity with desire to consume flesh is the hardest cultural trait to let go which they immediately establish class hierarchies and cus- of is telling, but logical if we understand meat-eating as toms on the shore of Altruria. Mrs. Thrall, fearful of being metonymous with the metaphorical cannibalism practiced in left with what she calls ―these natives‖ without Eveleth‘s America. The diet of the individual body in both cultures assistance, refuses to adopt Altrurian customs in exchange corresponds to that of the body politic. Cooperation, equal- for help. When told of the need for everyone to do light ity and co-existence is dominated by a motivation to find physical labor in exchange for food and hospitality, Mrs. sustenance without relying on the aggressive devouring of Thrall claims, ―We can pay our way here as we do else- other living things. Eveleth‘s periodic craving for meat, de- where‖ (411). Aghast at being told her money and status spite the vegetables and mushrooms abundant on Altruria, are worthless, she jeers, ―You want us to be Tolstoys, I registers the difficulty she has in completely re-imagining a suppose.‖ Not denying the charge, Cyril answers, ―Your way of life where insatiable consumption and the devouring labor here will be for your daily bread, and it will be of others is accepted and encouraged. real,‖ (423). The amnesic spectacle of American markets, as But what causes the most conflict between the well as the connection between Eveleth‘s meat-eating and Thralls and the Altrurians, aside from their initial refusal to America‘s cannibalism, is made even more explicit as she work for food, is their carnivorous diet. The crewmen raid tells Dorothea, ―You are so used to seeing [animals] in the the villages for meat, but are captured (or ―rescued,‖ from butcher‘s shop, ready for the range, that you never think of the Altrurian perspective) and immediately put to work after what they have to go through before that‖ (384). Still, she ―the chickens they had killed in their midnight expedition pleads with Homos to find her, at the very least, a chicken were buried‖ (414). Gradually, they become accustomed to to eat, and though he procures one, the two are forces to their new conditions, and are even allowed ―to catch shell- kill and dress it themselves. Used to others laboring for her fish and crabs‖ until their craving for meat diminishes, but meals, Eveleth is horrified when they perform ―the murder- only if they cook on the beach ―during an offshore wind, so ous deed‖ and after killing it, she does not have the heart to that the fumes of roasting should not offend the villag- consume it: ―We buried the poor thing under the flowers of ers‖ (415). The sickening smell that comes from the fires of the guest-house garden, and I went back to my mush- cooked meat is metonymous with what, for the Altrurians, is rooms‖ (384). a savage politics. The selfishness and self-importance of In imagining the diet of Altruria, Howells is almost families like the Thralls is as odious as the stench of burn- certainly working from Leo Tolstoy, whose influence on ing flesh, and indeed, their capitalist assumptions that they Howells‘s thinking at this time is immeasurable. One of can simply purchase their way out of any situation mirrors Tolstoy‘s beliefs was that dietary reform was necessary for their overall aggressive consumption. Their power over larger political and ethical reform. As Ronald LeBlanc docu- their servants and others is at odds with the communal ments, Tolstoy believed that the ―conditions of luxury, idle- ethos of Altruria, whose unwillingness to harm or consume ness, and epicurean indulgence under which the ‗parasites‘ any living creature reveals a spirit of communion lost on the from the privileged classes live‖ prevented them from think- meat-eating Americans. ing and behaving ethically, with a shared sense of duty and Gradually, though, these men, upon whose bodies obligation to each other (150). This is, of course, the orga- the Thrall‘s live, come to prefer this new life, especially the nizing principle in Altruria, and the disappearance of Eve- Thralls‘ chef Anatole. He jumps at the opportunity to begin leth‘s desire for flesh corresponds to her acceptance of a cooking with the herbs and vegetables, and actually ex- social and political ethos so opposite from the capitalism pands the dietary options for the entire society, confessing upon which she was nourished her whole life. that he ―always had a secret loathing for the meats he The grounding of an American yacht on the Altru- stooped to direct the cooking of among the French and rian shore allows Eveleth to truly understand the barbarity American bourgeoisie‖ (429). Even the Thralls and the of her former ways. Seeing how the survivors ―provisioned Moors find that their carnal appetites change with their themselves from the ship,‖ she notices how some ―seemed eventual acceptance of the new socio-economic tastes of to serve the others, but these appeared to be used with a Altruria. Though Mrs. Thrall is allowed to cook with ―the very ungrateful indifference, as if they were of a different canned meats brought ashore from the yacht,‖ the physical Page 6 Volume 12, Number 1 (Spring 2009) The Howellsian activity and fresh air take away ―any taste for such cessity, is also ―a system of communication, a body of im- dishes‖ (434). Everybody thrives in Altruria, developing ages, a protocol of usages, situations and behaviors‖ (167). parts of themselves that were kept hidden in the rigidly de- fined public roles they are forced to play in America and 3 With the exception of the novelist Twelvemough and Mrs. realizing that the system they were trained to despise is Makley, the rest of the elite social circle from whom Homos actually more palatable than the plutocratic conditions they learns about America are identified only by their profes- have left. sions. Ultimately, what Howells reveals in his stories of Altruria is the trite but true cliché: you are what you eat. Food is the overarching metaphor for illustrating turn-of-the- Works Cited century conflicts and attitudes between the social classes, Debord, Guy. The Society of the Spectacle. Trans. Donald the socially empowered capitalist consumers and those Nicholson-Smith. New York: Zone Books, 1995. required by economic necessity to surrender their bodily Barthes, Roland. ―Toward a Psychosociology of Contempo- autonomy, the consumed. These relatively ignored late rary Food Consumption.‖(1961). In Food and Drink in works are rich with textualities that deserve taken seriously History, Eds. Robert Forster and Orest Ranum. Balti- st one hundred years later, as they locate many of 21 - more: Johns Hopkins UP, 1979. 166-173. century America‘s political tensions right at the dinner table, Gregory, James. ―Vegetable Fictions in the ‗Kingdom of a space that is not freed of public discourses and agendas. Roast Beef‘: Representing Vegetarianism in Victorian What is on American plates, how that food got there, and Fiction.‖ Consuming Culture in the Long Nineteenth how it is consumed proves, for the Altrurian, a fascinating Century: Narratives of Consumption, 1700-1900. Eds. archive of cultural practices. Howells has followed us to our Tamara S. Wagner and Narin Hassan. Lanham: Lex- own contemporary hungers, informing Americans of how ington Books, 2007. 17-33. what seems temporary, unimportant, or transient – the din- Howells, William Dean. The Altrurian Romances. Eds. ner table or restaurant – may prove to be profound spaces Clara and Rudolf Kirk. Bloomington: U of Indiana P, from which to witness of the complexity that surrounds sat- 1968. isfaction on an individual and societal level. ---. ―In Honor of Tolstoy.‖ Critic 30 (Oct. 1898): 288. ---. My Literary Passions/Criticism and Fiction. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1910. Notes ---. Roman Holidays, and Others. New York: Harper and 1 Though several of Howells‘s scholars and biographers Brothers, 1908. insightfully note the increased attention to politics beginning Kirk, Clara Marburg. W.D. Howells, Traveler From Altruria: in the 1880s, Clara Kirk‘s W.D. Howells, Traveler From Al- 1889-1894. New Brunswick: Rutgers UP, 1962. truria (New Brunswick: Rutgers UP, 1962) is still the most LeBlanc, Ronald. ―Tolstoy‘s Body: Diet, Desire, and De- thorough study of the personal and social history behind nial.‖ Cultures of the Abdomen: Diet, Digestion, and Fat Howells‘s conception of the utopia. Also extraordinarily in the Modern World. Eds. Christopher E Forth and Ana insightful in regards to Howells‘s surprisingly radical politi- Carden-Coyne. New York: Palgrave, 2004. 147-166. cal thoughts is Robert L. Hough‘s The Quiet Rebel: William MacCannell, Dean. ―Cannibalism Today.‖ Empty Meeting Dean Howells as Social Commentator (Lincoln: U of Ne- Grounds: The Tourist Papers. New York: Routledge, braska P, 1959). 1992. 17-73. Marx, Karl. Capital, Volume I. (1867) New York: Interna- 2 The idea that food‘s function in literature goes beyond tional Publishers, 1967. sustenance is indebted to the groundbreaking work of Mar- Schwartz-Nobel, Loretta. Growing Up Empty: The Hunger garet L. Arnott‘s Gastronomy: The Anthropology of Food Epidemic in America. New York: Harper Collins, 2002. and Food Habits (The Hague: Mouton Press, 1975) and Veblen, Thorstien. The Theory of the Leisure Class. (1899) Peter Farb and George Armelagos‘s Consuming Passions: New York: Penguin, 1994. The Anthropology of Eating (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, Walton, Priscilla L. Our Cannibals, Ourselves. Urbana: U 1980). Both, of course, are working from Roland Barthes‘s of Illinois P, 2004. obervations in ―Toward a Psychosociology of Contempo- rary Food Consumption‖ that ―food, aside from being a ne- Page 7 Volume 12, Number 1 (Spring 2009) The Howellsian

William Dean Howells Society Meeting Minutes, ALA Boston 21 May 2009

William Dean Howells Society Meeting Minutes, ALA 21 May 2009

The meeting was called to order at 4:20 p.m. by Claudia Stokes, with eleven members present.

1. Elsa Nettels gave the treasurer‘s report. The WDHS has $ 1892.44 dollars in its account, and so its financial situation is healthy. The only expenditures have been for the William Dean Howells Society Essay Prize. It was sug- gested that perhaps the amount of the prize could be increased from $100 to a higher amount.

2. Claudia Stokes brought up the idea of having The Howellsian be issued only in electronic form and asked for discus- sion on this point. Among the benefits that members brought up for an online-only publication were the following: this would cut down on costs and make the information accessible to members. Also, photographs are in color in the online Howellsian. Among the negative points were these: people pay less attention to an online publication than they do to a print publication and are less likely to read it; also, it would be more difficult to collect dues from members with an online- only version. Another factor to consider is that we have email addresses (and some of them are very old) from only about half of our members. Moreover, we have published scholarly articles and have had them indexed in the MLA Bibli- ography, and the scholarly credibility of online sources is not as yet on a par with that of print publications.

Members present decided to continue with the print version for at least the next issue, with the option to go to an online- only format after that. Thomas Wortham suggested that members could be polled to see which version they would pre- fer.

The discussion then turned to the distribution of The Howellsian. As Susan Goodman had done at the University of Dela- ware in previous years, Donna Campbell sent it out last time using the resources from Washington State University. However, given difficult budget times, she suggested that paying for printing and mailing out of WDHS funds would be more sustainable, since WSU cannot pay for these costs in the future.

3. Lance Rubin is the new Vice President and Program Chair; Paul Petrie is taking over as editor of The Howellsian. The WDHS is grateful to them both for taking on these duties.

4. The discussion then turned to topics for next year‘s ALA panel. Members present agreed that one of these topics should be chosen and the remaining panel should be left as an open session in the call for papers so that we can leave room for new approaches.  Howells and the city  The weird Howells  The short fiction  Howells as a critic of capitalism  The reviews  Howells and religion  Prospects for studying Howells  New approaches to teaching Howells  Howells and politics

Lance Rubin will generate a call for papers based on this discussion.

5. Members then moved to a more general discussion about how we could bring more people into the society and into studying Howells.  The bibliography on the web site and its inclusion in The Howellsian was mentioned. There are actually two biblio- graphic resources, one that lists publications on Howells, and one started years ago by Terry Oggel, in which various members agree to take one journal and to provide abstracts of the material on Howells published that year. Alex Feerst was responsible for editing this some years back. Page 8 Volume 12, Number 1 (Spring 2009) The Howellsian

Another possibility is to have someone responsible for keeping abreast of Howells in the news; the Cather Society, for example, has a ―Cather in the Mainstream‖ column. Actually, the Howells Society has been doing this for several years at its Howells in the News site (http://howellsinthenews.blogspot.com/), but there has not been much news about Howells.  There is continuing interest in Howells from historians, and listservs such as H-SHGAPE could be informed of some of our activities. We could place an ad in some history-based periodicals.  Sally Daugherty announced that she has an essay coming out in Prospects on future directions for Howells study, and that this could serve as a good place to encourage studies in Howells. Thomas Wortham suggested that we have different levels of membership, since it would be easier for some people to pay for several years at once or to contribute more to support the aims of the WDHS.

After a round of applause for outgoing president Claudia Stokes, the meeting was adjourned at about 5:10 p.m.

Respectfully submitted, Donna Campbell

W.D. Howells Slept Here

Howells Society member Richard El- lington writes from the UK: ―On a re- cent visit to Ohio, to follow the spoor of WDH, a friend took me to The Golden Lamb in Lebanon simply to see the an- cient inn, where so many VIPs had stayed. We were pleasantly surprised to find that one of the rooms had a 'WDH slept here' type of notice outside it—and I had my picture taken sitting inside in a chair.‖

According to a December 8, 2008 article in the Cincinnati Enquirer (now unfortunately no longer available via the newspaper‘s website), the 1801 hotel has just completed a multi-million dollar restoration, whose goal was to modernize without disturbing the building‘s historical features. The hotel, Ohio‘s oldest business, has hosted other luminaries, including Mark Twain, Charles Dick- ens, and Henry Clay, as well as 12 US presidents. The inn‘s web- site, alas, makes no mention of Howells—but the photographic evi- dence speaks for itself.

Ellington adds: ―My trip was primarily motivated by a wish to see the places where WDH had lived and, secondarily, to visit places notable in the story of German immigration to Ohio. Despite asking around, I have got no information about his maternal forebears, including the grandmother to whom he reportedly spoke only, or mostly, in German.‖ Anyone with information germane to this topic is asked please to respond via the ―Scholarship‖> ―Queries‖ links on the Society‘s website.

If you should find yourself waking where Howells slept, or just passing by, take a picture and send it to the editor to achieve Howellsian immortality. Page 9 Volume 12, Number 1 (Spring 2009) The Howellsian

Howells Society Executive Board

President: Rob Davidson, California State University, Chico

Vice President & Program Chair: Lance Rubin, Arapahoe Community College

Webmaster: Donna Campbell, Washington State University

Treasurer: Elsa Nettels, College of William & Mary

Treasurer: Mischa Renfroe, Middle Tennessee State University

Editor of The Howellsian: Paul R. Petrie, Southern Connecticut State

University

Archives of The Howellsian are available in color PDF format on the Howells Society website: www.howellssociety.org

Username: howellsian Richard Ellington sits where WDH slept. Password: lapham

From the Editor

Having taken on, without previous experience, the job of editing The Howellsian, I have no doubt that—despite the fact that the newsletter‘s former (interim) editor, Rob Davidson, handed most of the issue‘s contents to me on a silver platter—you will find a few errors and infelicities in these pages. I can only plead inexperience and hope to do better next time.

Toward that end, I‘d welcome any and all comments on the current issue and suggestions for future ones. Your contributions of Howells-related news items, queries, notes, reviews, etc will be happily received, as will ideas about future content items. Contact me via email at [email protected]. Sincerely, Paul R. Petrie

Page 10 Volume 12, Number 1 (Spring 2009) The Howellsian In the Next Issue . . .

Abstracts of Howells papers presented at the 2009 ALA conference in Boston: new work by Nathaniel Cadle, Owen Clayton, Marcella Frydman, Joanna Levin, Kerstin Rudolph, Frederick Wegner.

Book review of Lance Rubin‘s William Dean Howells & the American Memory Crisis (Cambria Press, 2008), by Rob Davidson.

Call for papers for ALA 2010 (San Francisco) Howells panels.

______

Howells Society Membership or Renewal—Dues Notice

The dues for 2010 will remain $10, which we all know is a bargain. Our membership dues remain among the low- est of all single-figure societies in the American Literature Association, and we shall attempt to keep them that way. To do this, however, requires that they be paid in a timely manner. If you have not yet paid your 2009 dues, please do so right away. Payment in advance for 2010 dues is also welcome. Dues money helps cover the cost of printing and distributing The Howellsian and such other documents as publicity brochures and announcements; it also funds the annual Howells Essay Prize, awarded for the best paper on Howells presented at the ALA conference; also, the Society has been discussing methods of using accrued dues to strengthen the Society and expand its membership by promoting the reading and study of Howells‘s work regionally as well as at the ALA meetings. Please help make your Society a stronger, larger, more effective one by sending your check for $10 promptly. Thank you! And thanks, too, for your continuing interest and support of W. D. Howells scholarship, and the William Dean Howells Society. We depend on it! New Membership Renewal

Name: ______

Mailing Address: ______

Email Address: ______

Amount Enclosed: ______

Please make your check out to the William Dean Howells Society, and send it to: Dr. Elsa Nettles, 211 Indian Spring Road, Williamsburg, VA 23185

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Volume 12, Number 1 (Spring 2009) (Spring 1 Number 12, Volume

Howellsian The